by Avery Ford
Dmitri punched in the door code a little more forcefully than he needed to. The door handle unlocked, and he swung it down and pulled the door open. He kept it propped open with his shoulder as Arthur stalled in the lobby.
“This is what, your second time here?” Dmitri asked. “I’m pretty sure you’re not ready to handle a full-blown staff meeting.”
Arthur’s lips drew downward in a tight scowl. “Just because I’m new doesn’t mean that I’m not committed to this place. You’ve got a lot of nerve telling me what I am and am not interested in.”
Dmitri shook his head. He wasn’t going to have an argument with someone so young. Arthur likely still felt like he was invincible, like he knew everything about the world better than everyone else. Dmitri didn’t want the drama that came with being a sort-of teenager again. He was glad to have shaken his teenage years.
“You’ve got a lot of nerve talking down to volunteers with years more experience then you.” Dmitri swung his thumb over his shoulder toward the hall on the other side of the door. “Get going.”
Arthur’s scowl deepened. “You know, I may be young, but I’m not clueless. I’m going to be going to grad school in the fall. I have a good head on my shoulders, and I’m serious about the things I do.”
“Great. So can you go be serious about the dogs in the kennel? I’m thinking they could use some attention.”
There it was. The exact behavior Dmitri had been predicting had manifested on Arthur’s very second day. The kid thought he knew everything. He thought he knew better than people who’d been there for years. Dmitri had seen it before, and he wasn’t interested in standing by and seeing it again. He’d been at the shelter for years and years, and so had Celeste. They had an understanding of the place that Arthur couldn’t have.
“I’m just trying to help!” Arthur objected. There was strain in his voice that wasn’t usual, and Dmitri softened for him. Maybe it was the blatant physical attraction at play between them, but for a second, Dmitri felt like he’d been a little too quick to judge. Maybe they’d just gotten off on the wrong foot.
“But of course, a guy like you would never reach out for help,” Arthur continued, grumbling the words. “I don’t know why I even bother.”
Whatever sympathy Dmitri felt for Arthur vanished. He closed the door behind Arthur, effectively sealing him into the hallway. Reconciliation wasn’t going to happen. Arthur could go walk dogs or futz around in the kennels, and Dmitri would take care of the business that mattered.
He wouldn’t let the shelter close.
“So,” Dmitri said, turning back to the conversation. Despair welled inside, and he couldn’t blame it all on the shelter’s bleak future. It ran deeper than that, and was much more intimately aligned. “Let’s go over the books, shall we?”
9
Arthur
That bastard. That crass, impolite, judgmental bastard!
Arthur turned to stare at the door. From the inside there was no lock. If he wanted to, he could push down on the bar and enter the lobby of his own free will. But after the stunt Dmitri had just pulled?
No.
No way.
Arthur knew he was young. He was inexperienced with a lot of things. He’d never held down a full-time job, or done much traveling, or even been with a man. But he wasn’t clueless about everything. He was twenty-one, and that meant he was mature enough to hold a conversation and have valid opinions.
Dmitri obviously thought he was a child, but if anyone was acting childish, it was Dmitri.
Arthur sucked in a frustrated breath and made his way down the hallway. He passed the cat rooms and the dog quarantine, doing his best to avoid the laundry area. Walking the dogs would give him some peace of mind. Wandering the maze-like, forested paths would be good for him.
As long as Dmitri left, he’d be fine.
Damn him and his ignorance. I need to get him out of my head.
The dogs were already all barking when Arthur opened the door. He frowned and stepped into the room only to discover someone standing in front of the medium sized dog kennels. Someone familiar.
“Quip?”
Quip looked at Arthur. He had his hands tucked behind his back casually. “Oh, hey. There you are. I was starting to wonder.”
“What are you doing here?” Arthur asked. “I didn’t know you volunteered.”
“I don’t,” Quip said. “I sneaked in.”
“You what?” Arthur glanced at the door, then back to Quip desperately. No one was allowed back into the kennels without a volunteer. “How did you get in? There’s a code on the door.”
“There’s more than one door.” Quip gestured at the back door Celeste had mentioned the day before. “Turns out the lock isn’t all that hard to pick, so I let myself in.”
“You did not just tell me that.” Arthur covered his eyes. The dogs were still going ballistic. “Oh my god. If they find you it’s going to be a disaster. You’re going to get me fired.”
“I can’t get you fired,” Quip said. “You’re a volunteer. Volunteers can’t get fired. All they can do is ask you not to come back.”
“That’s just as bad!”
“I mean, if they’re not paying you, I guess you don’t have to listen.” Quip shrugged. “But now that you’re here, you’re a volunteer, right? So technically you could say you let me in.”
“I haven’t really been here all that long! I don’t really think I have privileges yet. All I do is walk dogs and take care of little, inconsequential things.”
Arthur looked at the door again, fearful that it would open and that he’d be caught. When he looked back, Quip had come to stand before him. He was within arm’s reach. Arthur jumped.
“Whoa, calm down,” Quip said. “Sorry. Guess I should wear a bell or something.”
“Or a foghorn. I don’t think I’d hear you over all these dogs.”
In order to let their voices carry, they had to speak loudly. Arthur was almost yelling.
“So, let’s get out of here. You walk dogs, right? So let’s go walk some. It’ll be fun.” Quip made his way toward the kennels again, but Arthur reached out and grabbed his arm before he could get far.
“You didn’t sign the waiver. You’re not allowed to help out with the dogs unless you do.”
Quip pouted his bottom lip, his eyes sarcastic. “Really?”
“It’s the rules, Quip,” Arthur said. “I don’t want to get in trouble, okay? You can talk your way out of just about anything, but me? Not so much. I get tongue tied.”
“Or angry,” Quip said with a grin. “You’re not so tongue tied when you get angry. It’s cute.”
Arthur buried his head in his hands. Between Dmitri’s callous behavior toward him and Quip’s rambunctious behavior, it wasn’t turning out to be much of a good day at all.
“Hey, hey, don’t look like that,” Quip said. “If I’m not allowed to touch the dogs or whatever, I’ll just walk beside you. We can take smaller dogs, too. I’m not going to give a rat’s ass if a little seven pound dog bites my ankle.”
Arthur looked at Quip from between his fingers. “This is awful.”
“Nah. It won’t be. I just came to check on how you were doing, scope the place out, make sure they weren’t going to put too much pressure on you or anything. Turns out all I saw was eye candy, though. Who’s the gorgeous guy with the dark hair? I saw him go in through the front door on my way in. If he’s someone looking to adopt, can you let him know that I’m up for adoption?”
Arthur dropped his hands to look at his best friend in full. Quip’s lips were curled with mischief, but despite the humor, Arthur felt a pang of something ugly curl inside of him. Jealousy?
“Let’s go get some dogs and get out of here,” Arthur said. “I’m in way over my head as it is and all this barking isn’t helping.”
“I want to choose one of the dogs you walk,” Quip declared. As he made a quick sweep of the kennels, Arthur took two leashes from the storage closet, then went
into the toy sized dog kennel to slip the leash onto the tiny terrier’s head. “How about this one?” Quip called from in front of the kennel right next to Arthur’s. “He looks tiny and pretty chill. I don’t think he’s going to be any problem at all.”
Arthur led the terrier out from the kennel and closed the door behind him. He looked into the kennel Quip stood in front of. The dogs were still tiny, hardly any bigger than the dogs Arthur had just been with. In fact, he was certain some of them were smaller.
The dog Quip was pointing at looked like a baby pug. Arthur bit down on his lip and nodded. He knew that he wasn’t supposed to let dogs from different kennels out without permission, but all of the dogs were so small it seemed to be a non-issue. Besides, their kennels were side by side. It wasn’t like he was bringing out one of the big, aggressive dogs.
Arthur opened the kennel. The second he did, all hell broke loose.
One of the dogs inside the kennel darted out before Arthur had a chance to slam the door shut. It was a mutt, but likely some kind of terrier by the shape of its body and the length of its nose. It launched itself right at the terrier Arthur had leashed, snarling and snapping its jaws as it sprang at the other dog. They fell into a pile on the shelter floor, the guttural anger in their snarls terrifying.
Arthur gasped and acted on impulse. He swung down and pulled at the dog he had collared, trying to disengage him from the fight. The dog twisted wildly in his arms like he was a fish out of water, and his claws scraped at Arthur’s wrists, skinning where they touched. Arthur winced, but when the dog kicked him with all his might, he couldn’t hold on any longer. The dog broke free from his grasp and pounced on the other dog.
A human hand grabbed Arthur’s shoulder. The fingers tightened painfully. Arthur was sure it was Quip, but when the hand pushed him back forcefully, causing him to stagger, Arthur got to see the truth first-hand.
It wasn’t Quip that he saw as he was forced to stagger backward — it was Dmitri.
“Stop.” Dmitri’s voice was liquid nitrogen. Everything in the kennel froze. The dogs still in their enclosures stopped barking. For a second, perfect stillness reigned supreme.
The two fighting dogs stood facing each other, quivering. Dmitri grasped the leash and led one of the two a few feet away, then gestured at the second dog.
“Put him back in his kennel, Arthur.”
Every part of Arthur was too frozen to reply. Every part but his heart, at least. It hammered in his chest, striking his ribcage so hard Arthur was afraid he was going to break a rib.
“Put him back in his kennel,” Dmitri repeated, the frosty notes now even colder in his voice. “Do it now.”
Arthur’s feet moved on instinct alone. He scooped the dog up, opened the kennel door, and put the dog down inside. None of the other dogs in the kennel rushed the door. All of them stood at attention, ears perked, eyes on Dmitri.
The time for games was over. Their master had arrived.
Arthur closed and latched the kennel door. In the back of his mind, he was aware that Quip had disappeared. If Dmitri had seen him or not, he didn’t know. What Arthur did know was that he was in trouble.
Big trouble.
He’d been told not to take out two dogs from different kennels without permission, but he’d done it anyway, and to disastrous results.
“I’m sorry,” Arthur murmured when the door was latched. “I didn’t mean for that to happen.”
“I told you yesterday not to do this,” Dmitri said. His voice was level, but beneath his stone cold mask of impartiality, Arthur heard his tone tremble. He wasn’t sure if it was anger or fear. “Do you understand now why there are rules you must follow?”
“Yes.” Arthur kept his gaze lowered. “I really am sorry. I won’t do it again.”
“Good.” Dmitri handed the leash back to Arthur. “Because if you make a habit of this, if you start breaking the rules whenever you want, it’s not going to end well for you. When your arm is torn open because you dove headfirst into a dog fight, or when a dog clamps his jaw down so hard on your hand that he shatters the bone in your thumb, you’re going to wish you listened to us when we told you what you could and could not do.”
Arthur nodded. Embarrassment heated his collarbone and burned his neck. He was sure his whole face was red.
“If you’re going to go walk a dog, go get to it,” Dmitri told him. “And don’t mix dogs from different kennels. Not if you want to keep all your fingers.”
Arthur nodded again. Defeated, he slunk back to the kennel he’s taken the terrier from and let himself back into the kennel. By the time he’d collared one of the dogs there, Dmitri was already gone.
Neither dog, it appeared, was injured. Despite the snarling and snapping and kicking, there had been no blood drawn. Arthur considered it a small blessing.
If a dog had been hurt on his watch?
He blinked back shameful tears and took his two dogs out through the back door. He couldn’t tolerate the thought of having to walk past Dmitri after what had just happened.
Quip leaned against the wall not far from the door. He turned his head when Arthur exited, his face sullen with concern. “Everything okay?”
“No.”
“Did anyone get hurt? Any people or dogs?”
“No.” Arthur drew a breath. “But my confidence feels like it’s been beaten with a baseball bat. I’m not sure I’ll ever stop being embarrassed.”
“You will. Let’s walk it off, right?” Quip pushed off the wall and took a few bold steps forward, then swung around and faced Arthur. Arthur remained near the door, eyes glued to the toes of his shoes. His heart still beat like it was trying to break out of his chest.
“Come on,” Quip said. “Chin up. You’re alive, the dogs are alive, and you got to see that guy I was talking about. Captain Handsome. What did you say his name was again?”
“Dmitri,” Arthur murmured. Speaking the name made him feel even more guilty. “His name is Dmitri.”
“Foreign. Sexy. I like it.” Quip chuckled. “Maybe I’ll come volunteer, too. It’d be worth it to be around someone like that.”
“He’s not…” Arthur found the strength to look up. “He’s not who you think he is. He’s rotten on the inside.”
“And so am I.” Quip laughed. “Probably a different kind of rotten, though, judging by the look on your face. That’s okay. We’ll get this figured out later. For now, I think we’ve got some dogs to walk, right?”
“Right.” Arthur looked down at the dogs at his sides. He was in this for them, not Dmitri.
He just needed to calm down. Everything would be better once he managed to slow his pulse back to normal.
With Dmitri on his mind, he didn’t think that would happen any time soon.
10
Dmitri
The doorbell at O’Hannahan Kennels rang. The dull buzz cut through the silence, and Dmitri lifted his head. He’d been working with Poindexter on advanced obedience, but Poindexter would much rather be doing his own thing than listening to someone else.
Some dogs weren’t suited for dog shows. Dmitri didn’t blame Poindexter for his shortcomings. He was a good dog, but he was much more concerned with fun than with anything else.
He’d make a good pet. Dmitri hoped he could find Poindexter someone who’d spoil him until his last day.
“Let’s go see who it is, Poindexter,” Dmitri said. “Free.”
Free was Poindexter’s release word. He rose from his sitting position, tail wagging, and followed by Dmitri’s side as he headed for the front door. Poindexter didn’t follow leads as well as Jagger or Annie did, but he knew how to heel. When they arrived at the door and Poindexter stopped and sat, Dmitri scratched him behind the ear before unlocking the front door.
He didn’t take walk-in appointments, and he didn’t have any appointments with clients today.
Standing on the stoop was none other than Rachel Halifax. One corner of Dmitri’s lips curled into a smile. “Rachel.”
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“Hello, Dmitri,” Rachel said. Her lips were painted a pretty coral pink, and her hair was gathered into a high ponytail that still manage to cascade down her back. Rachel was only a few years older than Dmitri was, and she’d been a friend of his since he’d taken over the kennels from his mother. “Are you with any clients today?”
“Nope.”
“Do you mind if I bring in my golden puppies to play with your pack? I’m in the middle of socializing this new litter and I’d love for them to meet your dogs.”
“I trust you’re current on immunizations?”
Rachel winked. “Would you expect anything less of me?”
Dmitri’s smile bloomed in full. He stepped back from the doorway, leaving the door wide open. “Bring them in. We’ll have them run around in the enclosure in the back. Annie will be staying in, as she’s still in season and being courted, but the rest will be glad to play.”
“Oh, more puppies.” Rachel held up a single finger. “Pause that thought. I’m going to be back in a second. I’ll go get my crew and we can talk in the enclosure.”
“You got it.”
They went their separate ways. Dmitri headed for the kennels, letting Jagger, Voss, and Lily out. They obediently fell in line at his side, and he guided them to the back door and out into the enclosure. As soon as the door opened, all four dogs took off sprinting. They knew that the enclosure meant playtime.
Dmitri watched them go. He settled on the bench by the door, knowing that Rachel would close the front door and lock it behind her. It wasn’t the first time she’d brought her puppies over to socialize them.
Soon enough, three golden retriever puppies sprinted through the door and bolted directly for the young adult Belgian Malinois running and playing in the yard. Dmitri watched as his dogs noticed the puppies, then reacted to them. Play continued, but it became much gentler and far more nurturing. Ever Jagger became tender, letting the puppies nip at his ankles and pounce at him without retaliation.